Malaysia Airlines Sent a Plane in the Wrong Direction on Christmas

Alamy

It's been a rough couple of years for the airline.

John Scarpinato

December 28, 2015

It didn’t take long for the pilot on board Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH132 to realize that his plane was heading in a different direction than planned. According to the New Zealand Herald, the flight, which was scheduled to fly nonstop from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur, started heading toward Melbourne shortly after takeoff, rather than the Malaysian capital. After contacting the air traffic controllers in Auckland, it was determined that the respective flight plans did not match.

“Our flight MH132 from Auckland to Kuala Lumpur was given the latest flight plan by the airline's Operations Dispatch Centre (ODC) whilst Auckland's Air Traffic Control (ATC) was inadvertently given an earlier flight plan,” the airline said in a statement. “The safety of both passengers and crew were never compromised at any time.”

The passengers’ safety may never have been in jeopardy, but the embarrassment comes at a time when the carrier is still in the international spotlight for multiple tragedies last year.

In March, flight MH370 disappeared over the South China Sea with 239 passengers and crew. Only a wing part has been found. Additionally, in July, a ground-to-air missile shot down Flight MH17 over Ukraine killing 298 people.

An investigation has been launched by the airline to determine what caused the mistake to occur.